Communications of the ACM
For Sympathetic Ear, More Chinese Turn to Smartphone Program
Millions of young Chinese use the Xiaoice smartphone program introduced in China by Microsoft last year.
Credit: Gilles Sabrie/The New York Times
The Xiaoice smartphone chatbot introduced in China by Microsoft last year has gained a major following, with people turning to it for comfort and sympathy.
Xiaoice (Chinese for "Little Bing") currently exists as a text-messaging program, but the next iteration will incorporate a voice so users can converse with it. The program recalls details from previous dialogues with users, and its developers have accorded it a more compelling personality and sense of "intelligence" by mining the Chinese Internet for human exchanges. Microsoft also developed language-processing technology that picks question-answer pairs from typed conversations, giving Xiaoice a database of human, up-to-date responses from which to choose. The chatbot reflects the dramatic advances of deep learning via artificial neural networks, which are capable of recognizing patterns in speech, images, and language.
Some researchers think Xiaoice's popularity can be explained by cultural factors, such as the dense population of Chinese society. Juji CEO Michelle Zhou says the Chinese engage in more face-to-face daily conversations than most Americans would in their own country, and a chatbot such as Xiaoice might offer them a sense of personal space that is otherwise lacking.
Microsoft executives note they are attempting to determine Xiaoice's business potential, and they are collaborating with partners to convert the chatbot into a shopping assistant, as well as to add voice recognition to home appliances.
From The New York Times
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